My Husband Sent His Brother as Stand-In for 7 Years, I Dumped Them Both

Chapter 2

Half past midnight, my bedroom door finally opened.

"Chloe, why are you home?"

In the darkness, I couldn't tell who it was.

I answered vaguely, "I wasn't feeling well, so I slept all day."

The tension in the person behind me finally eased.

"OK. Go back to sleep."

He wasn't particularly concerned about how I was feeling.

That meant it was Wesley.

He asked, "Chloe, who am I?"

"Wesley. Stop messing around."

He suddenly laughed and came over, pulling me into his arms.

"Right. Remember this. Only Wesley gets to touch you."

He lay down beside me, and I caught a faint trace of Mia's perfume on him.

I pushed him away without answering.

"Stay away from me. You smell awful. You're making me nauseous."

His movements stopped.

"Chloe, are you having morning sickness?"

"No. I just feel sick."

I stopped paying attention to him and turned over, falling asleep.

I heard Wesley let out a quiet sigh of relief.

The next morning, Wesley had already left.

Sitting on the bed, I let my mind go blank, only to find myself drifting back through the past seven years.

Ten years ago, when I was brought back to the Bennett family, I was nothing more than an unwanted heiress, their biological daughter, but hardly a beloved one.

It seemed like anyone could walk all over me.

I had planned to live out my life quietly, never asking for anything and never causing trouble.

But on the night before the wedding, Mia left behind nothing but a note saying she wanted to pursue her freedom before flying overseas.

She ran from the marriage, and I was pushed into marrying a complete stranger.

At first, I was afraid of Wesley.

I was afraid he would look down on me for my humble upbringing, just like everyone else.

But he simply went through with the wedding as though he were fulfilling an obligation.

I truly began to develop feelings for Wesley at a party.

He had made plenty of enemies with his ruthless business tactics.

One of them somehow bribed a security guard and came at Wesley with a knife.

Without thinking twice, I rushed forward and took the blade for him.

Wesley caught me as I collapsed into his arms.

His voice was thick with emotion.

"Chloe, why would you do something so stupid?"

I answered shakily, "Because you would've been hurt."

He seemed to take my words as a confession of love.

From that day on, he truly began treating me like his wife, as if he wanted to give me every precious thing in the world.

But at the time, all I could think was that if he died, my parents would blame me, and my life would become even harder.

Wesley loved me, and I gave him my heart in return.

I naively believed that even an ugly duckling could find true love.

For him, I learned the rules of high society.

He would smile and pull me into his arms.

"Chloe, with me by your side, you'll never have to follow anyone else's rules. Just be yourself."

I believed him.

But I had always been an insecure person.

The more he gave me, the more I wanted to save it all for a rainy day.

I was always afraid that something might happen someday and I'd need to be able to help.

So over the years, I had saved enough money to live abroad for the rest of my life.

But then Mia came back.

She knew about my prosopagnosia.

At her welcome-home party, she flashed a mischievous smile.

"Wesley, why don't you let someone else wear your watch for a bit?"

Wesley did exactly that.

So when I went to pick him up and reached for his hand, I ended up holding someone else's.

Wesley's expression darkened instantly.

He grabbed my wrist and pinned me against the wall.

"Chloe, do you just throw yourself at any man?"

Mia hurried over with a teasing laugh.

"Wesley, don't scare her. She has prosopagnosia. She can't tell you two apart."

That was the day Wesley learned about my condition.

"So whoever wears this watch, you think he's me?"

His face was filled with disappointment.

I wanted to shake my head, but I couldn't deny the truth.

Wesley refused to look at me, exhaustion written all over his face.

"Go home for now."

Mia shot me a smug, triumphant smile.

I went home, hating my prosopagnosia for the first time.

After that day, Wesley changed.

He started making home-cooked meals for me.

He even washed my clothes himself.

It was as if we weren't a couple brought together by an arranged marriage, but a real married couple who had spent years growing close.

I thought he had finally understood how difficult things were for me and wanted to spend more time with me.

He would often pull me into his arms.

"Honey, who am I?"

"Wesley."

My answer would earn me a playful bite on the neck.

He would murmur, "Wrong. Try again."

Thinking it was just his way of flirting, I tried several different names.

"Wesley… Wes… Honey?"

Only then would he smile and ruffle my short hair.

"That's my good girl."

A month ago, he told me he was going to a party.

He left with a smile.

But when he came home, his face was dark with anger.

That night, he was unusually rough and, for the first time, refused to use protection.

"They all said I'm not worthy of having a child with the Wynn family bloodline. Chloe, give me a baby. Please?"

I could only manage a few breathless sounds in response.

Looking back now, how could the eldest son of the Wynn family possibly be considered unworthy?

Unless the man in my bed that night had been Ethan.